Every week we go through the plethora of app stores to find you a solid list to check out in your down time. This week, we’ve got apps ranging from ones that will help you make convincing excuses, to an app that wants to help get you engaged with the community you live around. Check out all five below.
Gotta Go!
We’ve all had those moments where we just wish we had a good excuse to get out of an awkward or unpleasant situation. Gotta Go! is your go-to excuse provider, offering a way for users to schedule calls and texts with any type of excuse — you’ll have to get creative. It’s sort of a promotional app that came out of Chelsea Handler’s new Netflix show, Chelsea Does. You can set specific contacts to excuses to make your excuse look more believable, and you can make a few preset excuses for those dire situations where you need something quickly. It’s unclear how long the app will be supported, as it largely relies on popularity — which also determines if it comes to Android.
Tack
Tack is a location-based messaging service that wants to help users engage with their local communities. You can see what’s happening around you, trending places, and what others post about at places near you. The app doesn’t just help you see the best things happening near your location, but you can also find resources like babysitters, and plumbers, as well as get help in finding lost pets or packages. If you’re a business owner, you can advertise deals to entice others who use the app. The goal is to get everyone working together and engaging with the community they are living in.
News Pro
Another week, another app from Microsoft. Unlike last week’s Mimicker Alarm for Android, News Pro is an barebones iOS news reader meant to compete with Apple News and other aggregate news apps. Like most news readers, you can pick your favorite categories for your feed and check out top stories in the highlights section. If you sign up through your Facebook or LinkedIn account, it will pick certain categories for you, based on your interests. The Web app works on any device, but Microsoft has no plans to bring News Pro to Android.
500 Miles
Stuck in an unemployment slump? Try 500 Miles. It’s a job-finding app that uses information like your preferred job role, preferred locations, schools you have attended, work authorization status, and past employers to ensure a personalized job recommendations from more than 850 companies. You can also connect with your fellow alumni and friends who can then refer you for positions. 500 Miles is highly data-driven, so it provides you with hiring trends, talent quality, information on salary and compensation. You can search and find companies you’re interested in through the Discover feed, and you can also “follow” companies to show you are interested.
Watstime
What’s the next best thing to setting reminders to message someone? Actually scheduling a written message to them. Watstime is a neat messaging app that you can use to schedule messages, like reminding your dad to take his medicine at a specific time, or reminding your partner to grab a few groceries on their way home from work at 5 p.m. There’s also a “My Watstime” section where you can schedule reminders for yourself. There’s a lot more things you can do in the app, such as the option to snooze reminders, but one exciting feature the company is working on is the option to schedule messages for other apps like Facebook Messenger. It says it’s coming soon to iOS.
